Jotun (PC) Review

Jotun is a very pretty game; everything is drawn and coloured with beautiful hues. Every screen and area will leave gamers speechless in awe as eyes capture the spectacular art direction. Characters and creatures are also hand-drawn and animated really well, weather effects are illustrated perfectly in tandem with the game mechanics, and the frame rate is consistently fluid from start to finish. Visually, Jotun manages to dazzle many with face value presentation, but it manages to fail in the most important feature a video game offers: the gameplay.

Thora must complete five unique themed realms, with a boss following completion. A very simple premise, but Jotun manages to turn it into the longest walking simulator imaginable. In every area except two parts of the game, there are virtually no combatants to fight or really anything to interact with. The world is a barren one, but certainly a large one, at that. The distances between points of interests are dreadfully long and filled with nothing notable except repeating scenery.

Some instances a player will find golden apples to increase Thora's maximum health, as well as shrines that teach spells to use during the adventure. One particular spell temporarily increases Thora's attack and movement speed, which is easily the most essential tool in the game, since the distance of travel is painful. Using the dodge roll to travel may seem like a useful tool to travel faster at first, but the long pause between rolls prevents it from being viable. One solution that could remedy the long travels of walk would be to add creatures to have combat with more frequently. At a certain point, the difficulty spikes up very fast, but not because of the strength and ferocity of opponents, but due to the lack of checkpoints.

Combat in Jotun is elusive, and not really enjoyable when experienced. Thora's combat prowess is very sluggish and slow; in addition to that, she is limited to just a few attack options from start to finish - a three-piece combo, a large crushing blow, and the option to dodge roll with a thrust if timed right.

The boss fights are where the entertainment is located. Each boss creature that Thora encounters is a really large and well animated foe, with unique mechanics that have to be learned and studied on the fly as the battle progresses. In one case, there is an ice giant that causes the floor to become slippery, making it nearly impossible to simply spam the use of the axe. However, large shards of ice will appear, and can be slammed into the boss for massive amounts of damage.